John Edwards suicidal over possible jail time, magazine claims

John Edwards (right) and Rielle Hunter with their baby. (Source: Wikipedia for Edwards and WRAL for Hunter)

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A newspaper claims former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards would reportedly kill himself before he is forced to go to jail.

Edwards is under investigation for improperly using campaign funds to cover up an affair he had with a woman in which a child was conceived while he was still married to the late Elizabeth Edwards.

A grand jury has been meeting near Raleigh, and recently, a key witness in the case was re-interviewed.

According to The Daily Mail, the National Enquirer has written that Edwards told a friend, 'I won't go to jail. I'd kill myself first!'

The statement was reportedly made after Edwards' legal team informed him in early March that there was a strong chance that he could be indicted.

According to the National Enquirer, Edwards has lost nearly 20 pounds in the past year and his friends believe he has been "escaping reality" with alcohol.

"I think John is suicidal," a friend of Edwards reportedly told the Enquirer. "He knows that if he's indicted, prosecutors will try to get him to serve jail time and make an example of him."

The Enquirer says Edwards is also concerned about what will happen to his children if he winds up in jail.

"John isn't hiding the fact that he's terrified of going to prison," a source told the Enquirer. "But he's also extremely distraught about what will happen to his children."

Former campaign aide, Andrew Young, wrote in his tell-all book that 100-year-old heiress Bunny Mellon gave Edwards a gift in the amount of $700,000. Young claims that money helped fund the cover-up of Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter, who at the time, was pregnant with Edwards' out-of-wedlock child.

Andrew Young also told WRAL TV in a previous interview that Fred Baron, a wealthy attorney in Texas, financed flights and paid rent on a California home for Hunter.

"I heard one of the jets used for Rielle to fly around the country was $55,000 to $60,000," said Young.

Young went on to say the house in which Baron rented for Hunter cost $20,000 a month. Baron died from cancer in 2008, but his widow testified in front of the Grand Jury in Raleigh earlier this year.

Investigators have also interviewed Mellon twice, and some of her family members have also testified before the Grand Jury. Young says Mellon never knew what her donation was used for.

Mellon's donation and the alleged cover-up of Edwards' affair with Hunter are the focus of the Grand Jury's investigation which could result in an indictment against Edwards.